The List: 17 Aug 1990 (Issue 128)

I Delirium 7 at Rooftops (Secrets Lounge). llpm-late. £2.50. lt‘sthe club they’re all calling ‘The Big Friday Alternative‘. Well. the organisers are anyway. The serious doom and gloom are to be toned down a little from now on.with more glam rock. punk. Bowie. etc. Bet you still won‘t see the goths smiling.

I Joy at the Sub Club. 11pm-5am. £3.50. Housey-housey in a sweaty. steamy atmosphere of serious dance and serious dancers. Not a place for the uncoordinated. but great if you throw yourselfinto it. Elevate your mind. free your soul. get your T-shirt all smelly.

I Radio City at the Mayfair (Cameo Suite). 10.30pm—3am. £2. Whetherit's moving with the times or jumping on the bandwagon. Radio City is certainly a hell of a lot different from what it used to be: no longer purely 605. they now cater to the Manchester posse and even play straight dance records like Chad Jackson. The towering temperatures and boorish bouncers are unfortunate minuses to an otherwise fine club. but definitely worth a visit for surprise value.

I Humble at Joe Paparazzi. 10pm—3.30am. £3 (£1 student). Enjoythe gloriously over the top green laser show while you dance. or just sit on the steps behind the DJs console and let it wash all over you. Excellent mixture of rap. hip-house and indie crossover dance. but their way of telling you it‘s time to go (switching the lights on and turning offthe sound halfway through a record) leaves something to be desired.

I Shag at Fury Murrays. 11pm—5am. £2.50. Time again for all you John

' Travolta fans to stand up. stick one arm in the air and be counted. lfJohn Waters came to Glasgow. he would definitely go Shagging. Watch his new film Cry Baby. or even better, Hairspray. then check out Shag and you‘ll see what i mean. And watch out for the ‘silly nights‘ the Shaggers have planned soonish — shouldn‘t that be ‘sillier‘?

I Three Amigos at Tin Pan Alley.

1 1pm—late. £4 (£1.50 with leaflet). The bar staff wear silly Mexican outfits. Bowls of tortillas. enchiladas and taco chips are available, but there the South ofthe Border theme ends. The musicis new-wave indie. so I suppose there must still be some students floating around Glasgow.

‘Only those who dress will understand.’ says the glossy advert. ‘Only those who understand will dance. Will you understand?’ Er, i doubt it actually. The reason ior the not-pretentious-at-ali hype is, you guessed it, the latest new danceclub to hitthe city which aims to ‘change the whole oi the music scene in Glasgow’. Yes, again. It’s called Vertigo, it’s at the Warehouse and, as organiser Ron Aitken told me, it has got a mission.

‘I ieel that the rave scene has destroyed the whole club industry. People oi 23 or 24 years old are coming into clubs and seeing a scene dellled by drugs, young kids going manic to 128 beats a minute and they just ieel

G FEELING

too old. I think that it has divided the club scene, people oi 15-17 and 18—19 are going to clubs, but a lot at people who used to go don’t anymore - people at 21—22, leeling too old for clubs! I think that’s wrong. We’re going to give them a new dance beat that’s more suited to what’s happening in London at the moment.’

So ravers beware: Vertigo, it seems, is out to get you. Door policy will heavily discourage hooded tops, lor instance, ‘unless it’s the designer kind by Nick Coleman’ and Aitken hopes in this way to keep out what he calls ‘the wrong kind oi people’ and encourage clubbers to dress up ior going out.

‘The problem with the rave scene was that it was too easy ior neds to hide within that scene because everyone could aiiord the iashion, it’s basically an anti-iashion movement that started it. We ieel that it’s high time lor someone to make a stand against Manchester and to have a credible club where nice people can go and ieel sale in. and not surround themselves with a bunch oi junkies.’

So now you know: every other club in Glasgow is a hive oi raving, iiares-wearing, drug-sozzled, underage, working-class neds. but i still think I’d rather be in their company than those oi the ‘nice people’.

Vertigo opens on 24 August at 85 Dunlop Street. (Andrea Baxter)

after.

I MrD’s 1 1pm—4am. £2.

I Rallies 10.30pm-3am. £3.

I Savoy 1 lpm—3.3()am. £4.

I Stomp at Mardi Gras. 10.30pm—3.30am. £3.50.

ISWi 11.45pm—5am.£1.50.

I Xposed at Club Xchange. 11.30pm—5.30am. £2.50.

Saturdays

I Atlantis at the Sub Club. 11pm—5am. £5. Upfront dance and obscure house for the ‘in’ crowd. Entry requirements are a soupcon of pretension. a smattering of style. a sharp haircut and bags of energy— they come to dance until their turtlenecks melt. Some more live sets to entice you in: Mr Monday and Dream Frequency are in the area on Sat 18. accompanied by noted DJ Graham Park of The Brain to spin those discs into the small hours.

I Burnout at Rooftops. llpm—late. £2.50. Ah. close your eyes and you could almost be in the good old OM . . .solidindie faves. but to be honest. ifl hear ‘1 Wanna Be Your Dog‘ again. 1‘“ start howling myself. The odd new release would be welcomed. and the Mancunian emphasis touted at the start seems to have fallen away a bit.

I Divine at the Art School. 11pm—2am.

£1.50. Why does Saturday night attract so many (well. three) clubs with six letters. starting with D'.’ This might also be called Son of Swirl. being girlie groups and tasteful thrash as before. with an interestingly dressed crowd.

I Club Hacienda 11.30pm-7am. £5. One wonders if Club H are getting away with their somewhat cheeky use of Fac 51 ‘5 name due to the more pressing problems facing the Manc mafia. it‘s a curious choice since the Glasgow club concentrates on house and techno and is Mexican themed rather than a huge industrial warehouse; it also doesn‘t (yet) have the all-important respect. kudos and unmissability factor. but it‘s early days. Saturday nights feature an Under-18s disco from 7pm—1lpm for hip little bruvvers (£3. or £2 with a ticket) and live PAs for oldsters later on. The bopping stops at 5am. and breakfast is served until 7am.

I Helter Skelter at the Mayfair.

1 1pm-3am. £1.50. Recapture that authentic 60s seaside riot atmosphere as the city‘s mods and rockers fight to stay upright on a dancefloor the size ofa Twister board. The most confused clientele this side of the Shimmy. but at least they‘ve cut down on the twenty-minute guitar solos.

I Xposed at Club Xchange. 11.30pm-5.30am. £2.50. Happy hour 10pm—midnight.

Sundays

I Club With No Name at Rooftops. 11pm—late.£2. Dementia 13 is dead. long live . . . well. you choose the name andthe format in a special prize competition (entry forms available from the Solid Rock Caffe). it will be featuring rock music. but the rest. as they say. is upto

you.

I Hypnotonlc Soundtrack at Fury Murrys. £2. The Robert Halperns of Clubland slip in the odd obscure track from the likes of Parliament. Paris Angels, Paradise X, Kitchens O.D.. Dream Frequency or Audio One. just to keep things interesting among the more usual 808 State/Carpets/De La/Mondays/Charlatans/Roses numbers. lndietechnohiphop says the flyer: sounds good to me.

I The Power at the Sub Club. 11pm—3.30am. £2. Sunday's not traditionally a big night for clubs and hence The Power is not quite as busy as other Subs. it‘s a bit of a hidden gem though. mixing reggae and ska into the usual dance inferno. and well worth missing ‘Highway’ for. Mind you. so would defrosting your fridge.

I Sherbet Asylum at The Talk Of The Town. 10pm-3am. £2. A new name for Peggy Sue‘s. and a new club based around indiekid and psychedelia . . .haven‘twe heard this somewhere before? My sources tell me that if you go early you‘ll be swamped by seemingly-underage youngsters so maybe best to have an hour or two propping up a bar somewhere first. I Soul Kitchen at The Choice. ll.30pm—3.30am. £3.50. Great things have i heard about this new classic club and northern soul night — l've the feclingit could grow into institution status. The priciest of Sunday clubs though.